Faster Pussycat's Taime Downe

I'm sitting here with Taime Downe from Faster Pussycat. How was the trip in, sir?

Not to bad. Flight was a little tight and a little bumpy but it was alright.

Where did you fly in from?

Los Angeles.

You guys were playing at home?

We were just at home. Just chillin'.

So, you're back on the road now with what continues to the Dirty 30 tour.

Yeah, we just flew out. We've got four shows on the east coast and we were going to fly back and then fly to South Dakota but now we're going to fly from New York to South Dakota and hang out for a few days and then head home after the show.

Are you looking at any extended time off to record or even just to put your feet up because you've always, pretty much, been journeymen when it comes to going out and playing.

We're home for a little bit and then we've got another fly out in the middle of December and then we start more shit back up in January. We're trying to finish up some tracks that we already started a while ago. Just doing it in between, trying to get some of it done before the new year.

I hadn't really thought about this lately until it happened again to one of the bands from your scene and I actually value your opinion on this. With Phil and Tracii doing some work back together there now seems to be two L.A. Guns again. You had to deal with the whole dueling bands under the same banner thing, how did you handle it and what's your take on what's going on with them?

With me, I put an end to that quick. I started the band, I wrote the fucking songs and it ended fast. With Phil and Tracii, I don't really know the situation and I'm good friends with both of them, it's just that when there's dueling L.A. Guns it's, kind of, stupid. Now, Tracii just, kind of, does his shit, that's his shit. L.A. Guns is Phil but Tracii started the fucking band. My issue was different, Phil didn't start the band and neither did (Steve) Riley, Tracii started that band. I started Faster and wrote the shit, I don't know how much shit Tracii wrote. I know he played on it all, most of it and they're both really good friends of mine. That's their shit to work out! I worked out my own. [Laughs]

So, you've had this version of Faster Pussycat, "the" version of Faster Pussycat going for quite some time now but you had a more industrial band earlier with Xristian (Simon,) Chad (Stewart) and Danny (Nordahl,) The Newlydeads. How did that get together?

I started that right after I left Faster the first time. I went to Chicago and played with Pigface and when I was out there I started tracking the shit at Warzone. That's where KMFDM and Die Warzau and all the other Chicago industrial fuckers recorded at, Warzone Studios and then when I came back to LA I just put it together and started doing it. There's a couple incarnations of The Newlydeads too.

When it came to The Newlydeads sound, it was heavier and more industrial sounding, were you looking to branch out?

Just to do something different but if you go back and listen to that Newlydead shit it's still all rock and roll shit which is loops, crazy sounds and shit thrown in. It was just fun, it was just doing something different creatively too. Working with samples and other shit because it's all still instruments so it was just fun to do creative shit in a different way.

Do you, personally, have anything going on outside of Faster as far as music or are you just doing Faster right now?

Just Faster, it's taking up so much time. We're touring and we've been touring more in the last few years then we've ever toured. It, pretty much, keeps me busy around the clock.

How do you feel about Faster now as opposed to ten years ago and ten years before that?

I think it's great, it's cool. It's just us all being able to still be around. To be able to get out on the road and play, it's fucking cool.

After thirty years, one of the few bands that's been able to do that at all, what would you say Faster has given to you when you look back at everything you've done?

This is my whole life, really. To be able to do what I want to do since I was twenty-one years old. That's pretty much it and being given the opportunity to play rock and roll and travel everywhere. It's more then most people can ask for so I'm pretty satisfied with that.

Absolutely, so you've got thirty years down and thirty more to go, right?

Yeah, we'll all be hobbling around on fucking Rascals and shit.

Right on! Taime, let me let you veg out a bit, brother. I appreciate sitting down with you and I hope to do it again in the future and have a great show.